10 Long-Term WWE Pay Offs You Should Be Excited For
9. End Of An Era
Despite appearances, Adam Cole's grip on The Undisputed Era is as loose as their own grip on what it takes to be the coolest gang in NXT.
Geeks pretending to be jocks that don't realise they're still considered geeks, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish were perfect for Cole to manipulate into the domineering position the trio found themselves in upon arriving on the black-and-gold brand. In Roderick Strong, the crew gained a fourth not through their choice, but his. And it's this crucial difference that has informed a power struggle laying dormant beneath the cocky quartet for nearly two years.
To this day, Cole is clearly out for himself above all else, masking his selfishness by doing some of the bidding for his henchmen. We are informed of this by his t-shirt choice alone - he preaches solidarity whilst flogging his own attire at the expense of the group. When things go wrong, it's Strong he targets with blame because he's the one that needs to remain undermined in the eyes of Fish and O'Reilly.
Cole thinks he's the smartest guy in a stupid room, but that's precisely why he's not - he's failed to identify that Strong will one day have quite enough of the b*llockings, grandstanding and platforming and backbreaker the living sh*t out of the him.
It'll be a dark day in NXT when this unit go their separate ways, but the Cole/Strong feud in particular remains a light at the end of the tunnel.